It Takes a Village.

My typical day consists of waiting in the maternity ward for babies to be born to include in my study. While I’m there I chat with the nurses (the conversations are always interesting…I was warned by a midwife yesterday that if I didn’t have children by age 30 that I was at risk of birthing a mongol…I informed her that the risk increased after age 35 and that we don’t use the term mongol anymore…just Down Syndrome), I deliver babies when they come, and most importantly I mother baby Ray.

Baby Ray is the orphan infant in the maternity ward who all of the workers are convinced we should take with us to America…if only. He’s adorable. But today when I was staring into his cute little face I noted that he was also cross-eyed. His left eye was deviated outward. The scholars and I informed one of the head midwives and what followed was a hospital wide help Ray campaign. We traveled to the eye clinic where the optometrist saw the eyes and said that he would make Ray a mini-eye patch (very pirate chic), but first we had to treat Ray’s eye infection (which none of us budding Western doctors noticed). So then it was off to the pharmacy with Ray where we were given free medications and asked countless times how it was possible we gave birth in Ghana when we had been there for such a short time…

Which lead me to think, would I give birth in this hospital in Ghana? I think I would be scared to. First of all, there is no anesthesiologist so you can forget an epidural (ouch). Next, the sanitation is not up to Western hospital standards…a lot of that is because of the lack of funds to get up to date supplies (gloves, scalpels, fetal heart rate monitors, uterine contraction monitors)…and lastly, I’m just not ready to have a baby! Taking care of Ray is hard enough, and the whole hospital staff is there to help! It takes a village…